Reflective road device

ABSTRACT

A reflective road device includes a translucent body and a reflective layer. The translucent body is made of a tempered transparent material and includes a base portion and a bump portion. The bump portion is integrally formed with the base portion with the bump portion being provided on the upper surface of the base portion. The area enclosed by the upper edge of the base portion is larger than the area enclosed by the lower edge of the bump portion. The bump portion is provided with an oval arc at the lower edge in an incident direction of light emitted from a light source. The reflective layer is provided on the outside surface of the base portion of the translucent body whereby the light emitted by the light source enters the translucent body through the bump portion and is reflected by the reflective layer and emitted by the translucent body toward the light source.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefits of the TW patent applicationserial no. 106204741, filed on Apr. 6, 2017, and the TW patentapplication serial no. 106115921, filed on May 15, 2017, all of whichare incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a reflective road device, especially areflective road device with advantages of high strength, abrasionresistance, weatherability as well as higher reflective brightness.

BACKGROUND

Reflective devices are necessary safety facilities for road segmentationand warning and provide reflective effects for reminding drivers of roadcondition and traveling route resulted in a significant impact ontraffic safety. Setting of reflective road devices on the road canreflect light to warn drivers to pay attention to traffic conditions toavoid accidents.

Traditional raised pavement markers (plastic reflective devices withplastic or aluminum alloy shells) have several disadvantages such as lowstrength, being easy to be broken, easy to be scratched, easy toaccumulate dirt and dust and easy to fall off and so on. Also, the lifespan is very short and it needs a lot of money for maintenance andrepair. Edges and corners of the shell would even often puncture tires,resulting in car accidents. Therefore, it results in huge burden inmanpower and budget for road maintenance units and the road quality hasbeen unable to be upgraded and driving safety cannot be granted in anuncomplicated way.

Furthermore, there are conventional 360° glass reflective devices 4, asshown in FIG. 11, having advantages of high strength, abrasionresistance, weatherability and aging resistance. Its curved convex parthas a reflective function, and can achieve 360° reflection inhorizontal, but the conventional 360° glass reflective devices 4 arealso known as having the shortcomings of lacking enough reflectivebrightness.

According to the above, it is an urgent need in the art to provide areflective device having high strength, abrasion resistance,weatherability and higher reflective brightness.

SUMMARY

One object of the present invention is directed to providing areflective road device having high strength, abrasion resistance,weatherability and higher reflective brightness.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a reflective road deviceincludes a translucent body and a reflective layer. The translucent bodyis made of a tempered transparent material and has a base portion and abump portion. The bump portion is integrally formed with the baseportion and the bump portion is provided on the upper surface of thebase portion. The area enclosed by an upper edge of the base portion islarger than the area enclosed by the lower edge of the bump portion. Thebump portion is provided with a non-circular, oval arc at the lower edgein an incident direction of light emitted from a light source. Thereflective layer is provided on an outside surface of the base portionof the translucent body whereby the light emitted from the light sourceenters the translucent body through the bump portion and is reflected bythe reflective layer and emitted toward the light source via thetranslucent body.

Another object of the present invention is directed to providing a lesssusceptible reflective road device.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a reflective road devicefurther comprises a base mount having a groove at the upper surface ofthe base mount, wherein the base mount has two guide rails extendingparallelly in the incident direction of the light, and the translucentbody is disposed in the groove.

The foregoing aspects and the accompanying advantages of this inventionwill become more readily appreciated as the same becomes betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description, whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing an upper surface of areflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2-1 is a top view of the reflective road device of one embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 2-2 is a top view of the reflective road device of another oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing a lower surface ofthe reflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of the reflective road device of oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing an upper surface of areflective road device of another one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing the light reflection inside thereflective road device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view schematically showing an upper surface of areflective road device of still another one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view schematically showing two assembledreflective road devices of still another one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a measurement of reflectionintensity of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 is a graph illustrating the reflection intensity measurementdata of the reflective road device of one embodiment of the presentinvention with a conventional 360° reflective road device; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view schematically showing a conventional 360°reflective road device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1-4, in one embodiment, a reflective road deviceincluding a translucent body 1 and a reflective layer 13 is provided.The translucent body 1 is made of tempered transparent material andincludes a base portion 10 and a bump portion 11. The bump portion 11 isprovided on the upper surface of the base portion 10, and the areaenclosed by the upper edge of the base portion 10 is larger than thearea enclosed by the lower edge of the bump portion 11. The base portion10 is integrally formed with the bump portion 11. The bump portion 11has a major axis aa′ and a minor axis bb′, and the major axis aa′ ispositioned in the incident direction of light emitted from a lightsource such as a car lamp and the bump portion 11 is provided with anon-circular, oval arc 11 e at the lower edge in the direction of themajor axis aa′.

The bump portion 11 may be formed to be a vault, which is an archeduplift. The bump portion 11 may also be formed to be a truncated vault,i.e. the uppermost surface of the bump portion 11 is a flat surface. Itshould be noted that the above-mentioned shapes are merely illustrativeand are not so limited.

Referring to FIG. 2-1, the lower edge of the bump portion 11 has an ovalshape or an oval-like shape; that is, the bump portion 11 preferably hasa major axis aa′ and a minor axis bb′. A ratio of the length of theminor axis bb′ to the length of the major axis aa′ may range from 0.5 to0.99, preferably from 0.7 to 0.99, and most preferably from 0.9 to 0.99.

It should be noted that the shape of the bump portion 11 of the presentinvention is not necessarily limited by the length of the major andminor axis. The spirit of the present invention is directed to the shapechange of the incident surface into oval arc at the lower edge of thebump portion to achieve a directional increase of the reflected light,such that users in the same direction with the light source may sensemore brightness of the reflective road device. As an example, referringto FIG. 2-2, in another one embodiment, although the length of the minoraxis bb′ is intentionally increased, so that the length of the minoraxis bb′ exceeds the length of aa′, the embodiment should still fallwithin the scope of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 2-1, preferably, the contour of the bump portion 11 isshaped to be like a half capsule which has a lower edge resembling arectangle in the middle and resembling two half ellipses at both sides,respectively. It should be noted that the rectangle or the half ellipsedescribed herein is not limited to be perfectly rectangular or perfectlyellipse. For example, the lower edge of the rectangle on the sidesurface 11 f in the minor axis direction may be straight linear orslightly curved.

In one embodiment, the directionality of light reflected by thereflective road device may be determined by adjusting the shape of theside surface 11 f of the bump portion 11. As an example, the lower edgeof the side surface 11 f may be straight linear such that the reflectiveroad device has stronger directionality for the reflected light, namelythe light may be all reflected toward the direction of the light source;therefore, it can be used for relatively straight roads such ashighways. The lower edge of the side surface 11 f may also be curvedsuch that the reflective road device has weaker directionality for thereflected light, namely the light may be partly reflected toward thelight source direction and partly reflected toward the side directions;therefore, it can be used for relatively curved roads such as mountainroads.

Adaptation of the major axis of the bump portion 11 being positioned inthe incident direction of the incident light and the bump portion 11having oval or oval-like arc 11 e at the lower edge in the direction ofthe incident axis of the incident light achieves entrance of theincident light through the bump portion 11 and increases proportion ofthe light reflected towards the incident axis of the incident lightafter the incident light enters the translucent body 1.

In one embodiment, as required, a pattern or a small protrusion may beformed on the upper surface and the side surface 11 f of the bumpportion 11 to increase frictional force thereby creating ananti-skidding effect and thus contributing to the construction. Indetail, the inconvenience for gripping the conventionally dome-shapedroad reflective devices increases difficulties in road construction. Asto the present invention, however, the construction worker can easilycontrol the translucent body 1 of the reflective road device by holdingthe side surface 11 f of the bump portion 11 due to the increasedfrictional force during construction to achieve precise alignment of thedirection identification mark 101, thereby improving quality of mountingthe reflective road device during construction and increasing reflectionintensity of the reflected light.

The area of upper surface of the base portion 10 is larger than that ofthe lower surface of the base portion 10, i.e. the base portion 10 has areversed truncated cone (circular truncated cone) shape. It should benoted that the side surface of the base portion 10 and the bump portion11 of the translucent body 1 of the present invention may benon-spherical based on optically design or may be shape-modified duringmanufacturing and construction. It should be thus understood that theshapes described herein are for ease of understanding and should not berigidly limited by their geometric definition.

The construction procedure of the reflective road device may includedrilling the road surface, mounting the reflective road device into theborehole, and then adding the adhesive for fixing. Before mounting thereflective device, it is easier to construct using the round holedrilling. As shown in FIG. 5, in another one embodiment, the upper edgeof the base portion 10 may be designed to be circular for ease ofconstruction. But it is not thus limited. In one embodiment, an axis inthe incident direction of the incident light may be defined as anoptical axis of the base portion and another axis being opposite to theoptical axis may be defined as a side axis of the base portion. Theratio of the side axis to the optical axis may range from 0.8 to 1.2,preferably from 0.9 to 1.1. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, in oneembodiment, the upper edge of the base portion 10 may be designed tohave different shapes in consideration of optical reflection andrefraction requirements of the bump portion 11. In the embodiment wherethe base portion 10 has non-circular upper edge, the reflective devicemay further include a cylindrical shell (not shown) to cover thetranslucent body 1 and facilitate construction. The upper edge of thebase portion 10 and the lower edge of the bump portion 11 are set alongthe ground, and it is understood that, after the construction iscompleted, the bump portion 11 is generally located on the ground andthe base portion 10 is buried in the ground.

In one embodiment, a plurality of patterns or small protrusions may beformed on the upper surface of the base portion 10 for increasingfrictional force, thereby creating an anti-skidding effect.

In another embodiment, a direction identification mark 101 may beprovided on the upper surface of the base portion 10 for indicating theincident direction of the incident light. The direction identificationmark 101 may commonly include patterns (such as arrows), texts, digits,symbols and so on.

Referring to FIG. 3, in one embodiment, the lower surface of the baseportion 10 has a recessed portion 12. The recessed portion 12 helps toincrease the cooling rate of the translucent body 1 in manufacturing thetranslucent body 1 and which enhances the overall strength of thetranslucent body 1 and increases the specific surface area of thetranslucent body 1. Due to the enhancement of the overall strength ofthe translucent body 1, the translucent body 1 has better shape settingand is not easily deformed.

Preferably, the recessed portion 12 has more than one ladder ringstructures 121 to reflect the light refracted by the bump portion 11and/or the base portion 10. Although a plurality of ladder ringstructures 121 are illustrated on the recessed portion 12, the number ofthe ladder ring structures 121 is only illustrative for the descriptionof the embodiments and may be increased or decreased based on variousapplications.

The translucent body 1 may be made of tempered transparent material,such as glass, polycarbonate (PC), polymethyl methacrylate (Acrylic) andso on. Preferably, the translucent body 1 is made of tempered glass.Furthermore, the rate of cooling the translucent body 1 may be increasedin manufacturing the translucent body 1 to enhance the overall strengthof the translucent body 1 such that the translucent body 1 has a bettershape setting and is not easily deformed. Also, the colorant may beadded as required to obtain colored glass of diverse colors.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6, the translucent body 1 can be set in theroad, and the reflective layer 13 may be provided on an outside surfaceof the base portion 10 of the translucent body 1, including the outerwall of the base portion 10, the lower surface of the base portion 10,and the outer wall of the recessed portion 12 or the ladder ringstructures 121 whereby the light emitted by the light source enters thetranslucent body 1 through the bump portion 11 and is reflected by thereflective layer 13 and emitted toward the light source via thetranslucent body 1. Further, referring to FIG. 6, the recessed portion12 also has a reflective function whereby the outside light projectedonto the translucent body 1 may be refracted to the recessed portion 12and the ladder ring structures 121 of lower surface and then reflectedby the recessed portion 12 and the ladder ring structures 121 toincrease the light reflection effect of translucent body 1.

It should be noted that the angle and distance between the incidentsurface of the bump portion 11 and the reflective layer 13 may beadjusted based on the characters of the material selected for thetranslucent body 1. For example, the shape of the bump portion 11 andthe angle and distance between the translucent body 1 and reflectivelayer 13 may be adjusted based on the refractive index of the selectedmaterial. It is well known that the refractive index of the glass isabout 1.52, the refractive index of the polycarbonate is about 1.58, andthe refractive index of the polymethyl methacrylate is about 1.48.

In one embodiment, the translucent body 1 of the reflective road devicemay be colored as desired. As an example, the translucent body 1 of thereflective road device may be embedded for indication of a one-waystreet by reflecting white light in the direction of permitted passageand reflecting red light in the reverse direction to indicate theprohibited passage. In one embodiment, the implementation of the coloredreflective road device can be achieved by setting a thin layer oftransparent red glass (or a transparent dyed film) at one half of thebase portion 10 of the translucent body 1 while the other half is notdyed. After an aluminum reflective layer is sprayed on the base portion10 of the translucent body 1, the finished product having half-red andhalf-white is obtained. The other possible color combinations of thereflective road device may be half-red and half-yellow, or half-yellowand half-white, or half-red and half-yellow.

FIG. 6 simply describes the light reflection path of the reflective roaddevice in one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the parallellight beam from the car enters the upper surface of the base portion 10and the bump portion 11, focuses on the reflective layer 13 at thebottom of the reflective road device including the outer wall of thebase portion 10 and the recessed portion 12 and ladder ring structures121, and then is reflected to the top portion of the reflective roaddevice, and finally becomes a parallel beam back to a driver's eyes.There is a small included angle between the car lamp and the human eyeswhen viewed from the reflective road device. The larger the distancebetween the car lamp and the reflective device (100 meters, 200 meters,etc.) is, the smaller the included angle (about 0.4 degrees in generaltest standard) is; the shorter the distance between the car lamp and thereflective device is, the larger the included angle (about 2 degrees ingeneral test standard) is. These changes of the included angle are stillwithin the spirit of the present invention without departing from thescope of the present invention.

In comparison with the conventional 360° reflective device having 360°evenly distributed reflective brightness in the same horizontal level,the disclosed translucent body 1 may concentrate the reflected lightwithin a horizontally effective reflection angle span centralized in thedirection of the incident light on the road (the direction pointed bythe arrow on the mark), as the angle 0° axis, to greatly enhance thereflective brightness. The disclosed reflective road device is suchmanufactured that the concentration of the reflected light of thetranslucent body 1 may be increased when the horizontally effectivereflection angle span becomes smaller. In other words, the smaller theeffective reflection angle span is, the higher the reflective brightnessis. The horizontally effective reflection angle span centralized in thelight incident direction may be but not limited to ±20°, ±15°, ±10°, 5°,±2°. As an example, the horizontally effective reflection angle span maybe±20° to obtain a reflective road device of generic type, where thereflective brightness within the horizontally effective reflection anglespan can be higher than or close to that of the conventional 360°reflective road device. And a wider range of the horizontally effectivereflection angle span is therefore achieved. As another example, thehorizontally effective reflection angle span may be ±5° to obtain areflective road device of brightness enhancement type, where thereflective brightness can be greatly improved. This type has smallerhorizontally effective reflection angle span and would be suitable forstraight roads such as highways.

In the abovementioned embodiments, the reflective brightness of thereflective road device is measured according to the CNS (ChineseNational Standard) 13762. As shown in FIG. 9, a light source A with aprojecting aperture smaller than 26 mm in diameter and a photoreceptor Bwith effective detection area smaller than 26 mm in diameter shall beused. The distance d from the window of the photoreceptor B to thespecimen center C shall be adjusted to be more than 15.0 m. The lightsource shall be equivalent to the CIE standard illuminant A (Colortemperature 2856 K) to comply with comparative visual sensitivity ofstandard observer. In addition, the incident light on the specimencenter C shall be as uniform as possible. During measurement, theentrance angle shall be set at 0.5°, and the corresponding observationangle shall be 0.4°. The photoreceptor B is firstly placed at theposition of the specimen center C as shown in FIG. 9 with its detectingwindow facing the light source A.

As shown in FIG. 5, the reflective road device in one embodiment is madeof an acrylic having a refractive index of 1.48 while the conventional360° reflective device is made of tempered glass having refractive indexof 1.52. To facilitate comparison of the measurement of the reflectivebrightness of the disclosed reflective road device with that of theconventional 360° reflective device, a sample of the conventional 360°reflective device to be measured is redesigned to be made of an acrylichaving a refractive index of 1.48. FIG. 10 shows the measured brightnessdata of the comparison. While the conventional 360° reflective devicehas evenly distributed level of reflection (102 to 120 MCD/LX) atvarious horizontally reflection angles, the disclosed reflective roaddevice has the effect of concentrating the reflected light within thehorizontally effective reflection angle span by reaching 315 MCD/LX at0° angle axis, which is much higher than the brightness (105 MCD/LX) ofthe conventional 360° reflective device at 0° angle axis, and hassimilar brightness (80 to 86 MCD/LX) as the conventional 360° reflectivedevice at ±10°.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a less susceptiblereflective device. Referring to FIG. 7, in one embodiment, thereflective road device may further comprise a base mount 2 having agroove 22 formed at the upper surface of the base mount 2. The basemount 2 has two guide rails 21 a and 21 b extending parallelly in thelight incident direction. The translucent body 1 may be disposed in thegroove 22. The groove 22 may be disposed in the concave arc 26 at theupper surface of the base mount 2 such that the tip of the bump portion11 of the translucent body 1 is slightly lower than the top of the uppersurface of the base mount 2 and that the reflective device is lesssusceptible to damage and has long life span, resulting in betterreflective effect.

In one embodiment, the base mount 2 may be installed in the snowfield sothat the guide rails 21 a and 21 b are slightly protruding from thesnowfield surface. Both ends of each of the guide rails 21 a and 21 bare fornied with an oblique surface 24, and each of guide rails 21 a and21 b is provided with a stepped portion 25. When a snow removal machinepasses through the base mount 2 for snow shoveling, the snow removalmachine would conveniently slide on the guide rails 21 a and 21 b viathe oblique surface 24 without causing direct damage to the bump portion11 of the translucent body 1, so that the reflective device would beless susceptible to damage.

Referring to FIG. 8, the number of the grooves 22 and/or the translucentbody 1 is not limited herein. Preferably, the base mount 2 may furtherincludes at least one rib 23, the base mount 2 may have a plurality ofgrooves 22 disposed between the rib 23 and the guide rails 21 a and 21b, and the translucent bodies 1 are disposed correspondingly in thegrooves 22. The number of the rib 23 or the groove 22 may be evenincreased to accommodate more translucent bodies 1 and thus increase thereflective brightness.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, a specific example thereof has been shown in thedrawings and is herein described in detail. It should be understood,however, that the invention is not to be limited to the particular formdisclosed, but to the contrary, the invention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the appended claims.

1. A reflective road device, comprising: a translucent body made of atempered transparent material and provided with a base portion and abump portion integrally formed with the base portion and provided on anupper surface of the base portion, wherein an area enclosed by an upperedge of the base portion is larger than an area enclosed by a lower edgeof the bump portion, a side surface of the bump portion isnon-spherical, and the bump portion has a major axis and a minor axiswith the major axis being positioned in an incident direction of a lightemitted from a light source, and a ratio of length of the minor axis tolength of the major axis ranging from 0.5 to 0.99, and the lower edge inthe direction of the major axis is formed to be elliptical, and areflective layer provided on an outside surface of the base portion ofthe translucent body whereby the light emitted from the light sourceenters the translucent body through the bump portion and is reflected bythe reflective layer and emitted toward the light source via thetranslucent body, wherein the light emitted from the light sourcefocuses on the reflective layer, and the non-spherical side surface ofthe bump portion and the elliptical lower edge enable concentration ofthe light reflected by the reflective layer within a horizontallyeffective reflection angle span centralized in the major axis serving as0° angle such that a reflective brightness of the light reflected by thereflective layer reaches a maximum at the major axis, and thehorizontally effective reflection angle span is ±20°.
 2. (canceled) 3.The reflective road device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the ratio oflength of the minor axis to length of the major axis ranges from 0.7 to0.99.
 4. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein anuppermost surface of the bump portion is flat.
 5. The reflective roaddevice as claimed in claim 1, wherein the translucent body is made oftempered glass.
 6. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1,wherein the translucent body is made of polymethyl methacrylate.
 7. Thereflective road device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bump portionhas a contour of a half capsule.
 8. The reflective road device asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the base portion has a shape of a reversedtruncated cone.
 9. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1,wherein a lower surface of the base portion has a recessed portion. 10.The reflective road device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the recessedportion has a plurality of ladder ring structures.
 11. The reflectiveroad device as claimed in claim 1, wherein a direction identificationmark is provided on the upper surface of the base portion for indicatingthe incident direction of the light.
 12. The reflective road device asclaimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of small protrusions are formedon at least one of the upper surface of the base portion, an uppersurface of the bump portion and the side surface of the bump portion toincrease frictional force.
 13. The reflective road device as claimed inclaim 1, further comprising a base mount having a groove at an uppersurface of the base mount, wherein the base mount has two guide railsextending parallelly in the incident direction of the light, and thetranslucent body is disposed in the groove.
 14. The reflective roaddevice as claimed in claim 13, wherein two oblique surfaces arerespectively provided at two ends of the guide rails and a steppedportion is provided at a lower surface of each of the guide rails. 15.The reflective road device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the basemount further includes at least one rib and a plurality of grooves withthe grooves being disposed between the rib and the guide rails. 16.(canceled)
 17. The reflective road device as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe horizontally effective reflection angle span ranges from ±2° to±20°.